Duane Hanson
Duane Hanson
1925 - 1996
American sculptor. He entered Luther College in Decorah, IA, in 1943 but transferred in 1944 to the University of Washington in Seattle to major in art. In 1945 he moved to Macalaster College in St Paul, MN, working under Arnold Hauser. After graduating in 1946 he continued his studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI (MFA, 1951). He moved to West Gemany in 1953, teaching in Munich for four years, and then for three years in Bremerhaven, and working as a sculptor in a variety of media and styles.
On his return to the USA in 1960 Hanson came under the influence of Pop art, in particular in the sculpture of George Segal, and began to develop his mature style. His life-size figures in fibreglass and resin, cast from live models, and then painted and clothed, replicate real people with a deceptive illusionism. The extreme veristic technique of such works linked them to PHOTOREALISM, although their overt demonstration of social concern was uncharacteristic of the movement in general. In early works such as War (1969; Duisburg, Lehmbruck-Mus.), reflecting his concern over American involvement in Vietnam, he sometimes sought to embody movement, but he soon found this to be unsatisfactory. He then began to concentrate on static figures suggestive of the boredom and despair of everyday life, often presenting them as working class, as in Woman with Laundry Basket (1974; Adelaide, A.G. S. Australia). Later works such as Football Player (1981; Coral Gables, FL, U. Miami, Lowe A. Mus.) remained consistent in style with his earlier works but continued to expand their iconography of contemporary American life. ["Hanson, Duane." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 8, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T036565.]
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